See the picture above? It’s compelling, don’t you agree? You really can’t take your eyes off it. It warrants a second and a third look. In my case, I just had to take a picture of it. :)

I live in a third world country so a sight like that is not at all out of the ordinary. In a huge way, Infolinks is kinda like this picture. Visitors to my sites look at the black fonts in a plain white background and they get jolted out of whatever reverie they’re in when they see those double underlined green words.  Some folks can’t help themselves that they just have to click on the links. It’s hypnotic. Which is why in most days, the clicks I get from Infolinks far outnumber the clicks I get from Google Adsense.

As a long time blogger and a trying hard, second rate, online money-earner wannabe, I have experimented with a lot of ‘potential’ money makers and so far, when it comes to ease of integration with my blogs, Infolinks is one of, if not the easiest one to implement. Some similar contextual ads have the same ease-of-use functionality but they will make you wait for some time before you finally see the ads. With infolinks it’s like a plug and play device that you just stick into your computer’s usb drive, and you immediately see the results a few seconds later. I’ve never had to contact their support for anything. Well, except of course the email I sent to confirm that this little blog actually was one of Infolinks website of the month for January 2010.  Ahem.

My only regret with Infolinks is that I didn’t jump on the bandwagon sooner. I was one of those ‘hypnotized’ by some of my blogging buddies’ green underlines but I didn’t really took any immediate action to join the program.  It was only until later when they were raving about how in most days Infolinks has been outperforming Google Adsense in their blogs that I did. I must say that from what I’ve experienced so far, Infolinks gives other contextual ad programs a run for their money.

These days, I’m now one of those who rave about Infolinks and have been preaching its gospel to the very few people who follow my blogs. I just hope that for those who have yet to join, once they read this post and see the picture of a toilet bowl sitting on a man’s head, they will;

No. 1 – Immediately sign up with Infolinks, and not feel the urge to do–

No. 2

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Such is the case in terms of SEO contests.  Most international SEO competitions are won by people who have banded together to achieve a specific goal, which is usually to get the top spot in Google on a particular keyword. This is the same thing when we blog.  Even without us knowing, by networking with other people, by befriending other bloggers, we are already collaborating, at least on the most fundamental level. Apart from the usual relationship formed out of such networking, we are hoping that reaching out to other bloggers will have a beneficial effect on our blogs either through personal visits from our network or via referrals.
 

Why Collaborate?

 
It only takes a meeting of the minds of two or more bloggers to collaborate.  There just has to be a single objective that the collaborators will work on.  An example will be creating a news site.  This is all the rage nowadays.  A group of bloggers agree to contribute news and stories they find interesting (or sometimes specifically assigned) and post it in a common blog.  The idea is that with a lot of bloggers contributing regularly, the blog that they’ve created grows exponentially more than a blog that was created by a single blogger.  It can be a profitable exercise that is definitely worth your while.  Sometimes when you’re blogging independently for so long, boredom sets in and having a group of like-minded individuals that you can communicate or work with makes blogging a whole lot more enjoyable.
 

Collaboration Points To Consider

 
Choose the right persons to collaborate with.  This is the first and most important requirement when doing collaborations.  Ensure that the people you are trying to work with are people that you can work with, people that you are comfortable being around with, and more importantly people that can work.
 
Thresh out the monetary consideration early.  Although collaboration usually happens between friends, the business side of the activity has to be resolved early.  This is to ensure that there won’t be any misunderstanding when your collaboration starts making or losing money.  Arguments over money is one sure way to flush your collab project down the drain.
 
Everyone has to pull their own weight.  You don’t want to have freeloaders in your group.  Make sure that everyone contributes.  Serious collaborations can be labor intensive so everyone has to do their own share.  If you’re not contributing anything or not serious with the collab, man up and leave the group.
 
Appoint somebody to take charge.  There has to be at least a semblance of order in a collaboration.  Although fun is a major component of collabs, it wouldn’t be very fun when you’re not seeing any result.  Having somebody who will prod the group members to do their assigned tasks is very helpful.
 
Meet regularly and brainstorm on how to make things better.  Regular meetings ensure that all the things you’ve outlined, all the things that you said you’re going to do is actually being worked on.  This is also a good way to update each other on what’s happening.  Of course this can also be a very good excuse to socialize and get a breather from the wife or girlfriend. J
 
Celebrate your successes, learn from your mistakes.  No collaboration is not without problems.  Those who quit on the first sign of trouble are not really serious to begin with.  Likewise, make sure to celebrate whatever milestone you’ve achieved with your blogging collaboration.  A couple of beers would be fine,  a couple of buckets—awesome!
 
I’m sure there are a lot more things to consider but these points should be enough to get you started.  One thing to remember though, this collaboration thing should not be something that would make you lose your identity.  You still need to maintain your individualism especially with your blog.  The worst thing that could happen is if by being too absorbed in your collab projects that you’re no longer doing your own thing.  Always remember why you wanted to collaborate in the first place—and that is to break the humdrum existence of individualized blogging.

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Alright, so what have I been up to?

What occupies the little amount of my time after work is streaming media. Yep, a 6mbps Skybroadband connection affords me that rarity. Normally watching streaming media here in the Philippines is like watching a stop-motion animation feature. You watch a movie or a tv show online for a couple of seconds (minutes if you’re lucky) and then the video player stops to buffer up. It’s enough to make you go bald.

Speaking of bald, had I gone bald (prematurely I have to mention, lol), I would have sued SMART and Globe for providing me the internet service that would make anyone want to go homicidal. Anyway, I am watching everything online now, and life has never been better, except that I’m seriously sleep deprived. I am paying a premium for Skybroadband’s internet service but at least it has cured me of my desire to go and work overseas just to have an acceptable internet connection.

Skybroadband Induced Distractions

Anime

Animecrazy.net is still the place to go to for anime. Well, myspace videos is a cool place as well, but only if there are videos that you can’t find or doesn’t work in animecrazy.net. The only thing is that my watching frenzy has turned around and bit me in the butt. I so thoroughly made a career out of watching my favorite animus that I’ve caught up to all the latest series; Naruto, One Piece, Hitman Reborn, Hajime No Ippo. I tried to really hold on and not give in to the temptation of taking a peek at their manga counterparts but the weekly wait was too much to bear. I capitulated and I’ve discovered a whole new medium altogether. Manga is awesome. I went from my holy trinity Naruto/OnePiece/Ippo to discovering other stories ranging from hacking (Bloody Monday)to ecchi/harem (look it up) (Ichigo 100%) to a whole lot more. It is a world bursting at the seams with loads and loads of awesome stories. The only sad thing here is that I am again very much updated. Which means that even with Manga I have to wait on a weekly basis to get my fix.

And the lack of daily fresh material led me to..

Fastpasstv.com

This is the site to end all sites when it comes to TV shows. I tried their movie channel but the quality sucks. The TV shows however are very much up to date. And they seem to have almost all the TV shows that I like. Of course everything can be watched online. Yay me!

And right now, this is the site that’s been keeping me off of blogging. I just finished the latest episode of Glee. I am thinking of finishing the last episodes of Numb3rs and Supernatural but dawn is already breaking, which means that I’ll only be getting a few hours of shut-eye once again.

DANGER!!

I think I’m in danger of completely getting run over by TV shows. I no longer have to go downstairs to get my kicks. I can just turn the lights off, the AC on and I’m in my own private vicarious state. Which is not good. My travel blog is dying. But that one is the SO’s fault (not really). The DSLR can’t get here soon enough and I’ve sworn to myself that I’m not going to another location without a DSLR camera in tow. Hah! How vain some people can get.

Anyway, I’ll probably give myself a streaming video sabbatical so I can focus on some things that are just begging for my attention like this blog, and a few others that are dying of neglect.

Quick WOOT!

Bloggista.com hás featured this blogger in his blog. This is not surprising really, knowing what I have on him. lol. Just kidding. I’m flattered and at the same time bewildered, considering that I really haven’t done anything earth-shattering to be featured. Thanks dude.

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However, some folks would rather have you watching these events for free. They do this by opening up a channel somewhere in the internet and broadcast these events live by connecting their TV sets to the net or to they could also do so through directly from their computers. Of course these guys had to pay for the show otherwise they won’t get the live feed.

The cost for purchasing these events are easily recouped once people log into their sites to watch. There are a variety of methods that they make money off these viewers to get back their ‘initial investment’, chief among them is the impressions they get on the CPM ads they have on their sites.

Now as a website owner or administrator, you can take advantage of this by going to those sites who offer live broadcasts. Most of the time there are embed codes that are offered there for you to paste on your site. All you have to do is to get those codes and then optimize your posts so that they get very good rankings. Once you get into the page one of Google for the event, expect visitors to start rolling into your site.

You should know however that this is propagating illegal feeds, but if you are ok with that, then go ahead, knock yourself out.

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For one it’s free, as in totally free. Some other stat-measuring websites offer premium packages for their products. This is not the case with Google Analytics.

Then there’s all the bells and whistles that you just can’t find in one single other product and Google is even enhancing it every chance they get. Just now, a whole new set of Google Analytics features have come out like Engagement Goals, Expanded Mobile Reporting, etc.. that it makes you wonder why this is free. But this is Google we’re talking about here which means they can afford it and then some.

Here’s a video of the latest features from Google Analytics.

Simply put, if you want progress in your blogging, then you simply cannot ignore Google Analytics. For a blogger, you should consider this tool as one of your best buddies.

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For most bloggers however, the RSS feed can take up to a couple of days before they reach their intended recipients. If you don’t know this, try subscribing to your own feeds and see how long before your most recent post reaches your feed reader or email.

Two weeks ago I tried out the recent wordpress plugin called RSSCloud. This plugin promised a much quicker way of delivering your RSS feeds. It was a simple installation anyway so I just let ‘er rip. I didn’t think much about the plugin afterwards.

I started noticing the changes after a few days. My feeds have been getting into my feedreader real fast! And just now, after less than 30 minutes, the post I did on Canon EOS 7D just went into my inbox. How sweet is that?

So if you have yet to install the RSSCloud plugin, now is the time to do it. It works wonders I tell ya!

Related posts:

1. Ideas For Blog Posts

The Google Sandbox started as term to describe the holding period before a new blog gets indexed by Google. Think of a baby inside a mother’s womb. Over time however, the sandbox has evolved to also being a penalty box where erring blogs are placed outside of Google’s search engine. Some folks doubted that such a thing even exists. I can tell you however that it does from personal experience.

Teachers Board Exam Info

A couple of weeks ago, I registered a .info domain to use for the upcoming Teachers Board Exam informal SEO competition. I figured that the $0.89 that I shelled out is a good investment if it means that I will have the keyword that I need in the URL (SEO 101). So I did just that and put in a few articles.

I did the usual process of getting the domain indexed by Google, and it was, after a couple of days. Now everyone knows that the best way to get your site into page one of SERPs is to have a lot of links pointing to it. I told a friend the exact same thing and to prove my point I automagically created a few links pointing directly to that site using my targeted keywords as my anchor text.

A day after, the site shoot up not just to the first page of Google but to the number 1 position no less! It stayed there for a week and then it vanished. I could type the longest keyword specific to that site and it wouldn’t even register under page 100. The site is still working. It is still indexed by Google, but it’s just not showing in the search pages. That is the beauty and the horror of Google’s sandbox.

Sure Way To Get Sandboxed

What I did is called having too much too soon. This is one of the surest ways of getting your site sandboxes. Based on my observation ( and supported by a dozen other articles on this one), one thing that Google looks at is domain age. Also, Google likes things to proceed at a natural pace. A new site for example, should gradually develop its links. Any new site that recently came out and suddenly has a lot of links pointing to it is bound to get Google’s attention.

The site I created and all the backlinks that were suddenly pointing to it was a perfect case for a Google Sandbox penalty and I got it. I can’t say that I didn’t see it coming so I wasn’t really that surprised. The good thing about this is that the results of the teachers board exams is not coming out for at least 6 weeks so hopeful during that time, I should be able to get out of the sandbox. I just have to be very patient about it.

Silver Lining

One very good thing that I learned about my google sandbox experience is that:

1. With a proper campaign, I can get my keyword to rank #1 in Google’s SERPs
2. A week’s window is a HUGE opportunity. I can’t believe that it took Google that long to banish my site from its search results. Actually a week is more than enough time for my devious plans. :)

And that’s the Google Sandbox for you, learn from my experience and learn well.

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There were some heated debates surrounding the importance of keyword density among SEO practitioners. In a survey made by SEOmoz however, it seems that among top SEO practitioners, keyword density is not that big of a deal. Of course we can’t say this with a certain finality because Google’s search algorithm is still a closely guarded secret. We could even conduct some experiment on our own. But why bother when these guys, who have made a living our of SEO have made statement about this particular concept.

Regarding On-page ranking factors, Keyword Use/Number of repetitions in the HTML Text on the page, the experts say that this is of minimal importance. In that survey, minimal importance means that in a scale of 1-6, 6 being the highest, Keyword Density ranks second to the lowest for On-Page Keyword Ranking Factors.

Source: SEOMOZ

Related posts:

1. Importance Of Meta Keywords In SEO
2. Getting Ready For the October 2009 CPA Board Exams Results
3. The Art of Link Baiting

Google’s Matt Cutts recently came out with a video explaining how Google is definitely not taking into account Meta Keywords in their search algorithm. If you’re old enough in the SEO game, some folks used to stuff keywords in their meta tags so they rank well in the search engines, that was then. Now? Well, some folks say that you should still use keyword meta tags just in case. No harm there really, it’s just positioning your blog for any eventuality just in case the search engine gods decide to change their algorithm somewhere down the road.

Here’s the video.

Related posts:

1. And What About Keyword Density?
2. The Art of Link Baiting
3. Getting Ready For the October 2009 CPA Board Exams Results

Alright, back to the Alexa Page Ranking update. In early August, I moaned about the fact that my Alexa rank has taken a nose dive and it’s hit the 170K level both for this site and my Philippines Travel Blog. I think there were a lot of unbelievers out there when I said that if you just want to increase your Alexa Page Ranking, one quick and easy way to do it is by using Entrecard. Well raise your eyebrows now because if you will take a look at my Alexa numbers, you will note that this blog is swimming in the 140K category, while my travel blog is in the low 120Ks. That’s an improvement of 30K and 50K in just a month.

I’m even more excited how these numbers would look by the end of this month.

Related posts:

1. Alexa Ranking Update February 2009
2. June 2009 Ranking Updates